Chapter 1256: Design Completed!
After watching Boss Pei leave, Yu Fei silently clenched his fists and made a “YEAH” gesture.
Bao Xu, who had been pretending to play games by the side, immediately took off his earphones and came over. “How is it? What did Boss Pei say?”
Yu Fei was very excited. “Boss Pei said that there’s no problem, so he asked me to continue in that direction!”
Bao Xu was elated as well. “That’s good! It looks like our understanding is not wrong. Boss Pei had such a design idea to begin with.”
“Boss Pei was right to not let me take charge of everything. If I were to design this game, the most exciting parts of the plot, the character skills derived from the plot, the design of the stages, and some special game mechanisms would definitely be much worse.”
Yu Fei quickly said, “However, Brother Bao, you have a very clear grasp of the general direction of the combat game, especially the boundaries of the basic content. If you did not control the direction, I might still be fighting the basic combat system. In the short term, I would not have thought that the direction that Boss Pei arranged for me was to dig out the plot.”
After praising each other, both of them felt light-headed.
Bao Xu said with emotion. “I can finally confirm what the perfect Ghost General 2 in Boss Pei’s heart is like now. I have to say that every time I solve a riddle, I would be shocked by Boss Pei’s imagination.”
Yu Fei nodded. “That’s right. As a player who doesn’t understand combat games at all and isn’t very interested, I’m also interested in this game. I can’t wait to play this game!”
Bao Xu and Yu Fei had conducted a series of brainstorming before Boss Pei arrived. They had roughly confirmed the prototype of the game.
However, at that time, neither of them were particularly confident.
Now, Boss Pei’s affirmation had strengthened their resolve.
Of course, Yu Fei did not explain their thoughts very clearly. The main reason was that he had not finished the design manuscript. Many ideas were piled up in his head in a mess. He spoke about them wherever he thought of them. It was inevitable that he would miss out on a lot of content.
However, since Boss Pei was a master game designer and the inspiration for Ghost General 2, he must have had a perfect game prototype in his mind.
Since that was the case, why should he worry that Boss Pei would misunderstand?
It would not affect Boss Pei’s understanding if he ignored some details.
It was like a high school student asking a university professor for mathematics questions. The high school student spoke vaguely and missed out on a few steps. Could it be that the university professor did not understand?
Impossible?
As long as the questions were known, the professor would know if the high school student’s path was right and if he could solve the correct answer.
Now, the entire design plan for Ghost General 2 could finally be finalized!
Of course, he had to continue writing the design plan and develop it step by step.
However, in Tengda Games, designing this step was the most important step.
This game would not deviate only if he could deduce Boss Pei’s true intentions.
As long as the first step was completed, the game would be 90% successful!
Both of them proudly reviewed the entire process again. They were simply proud of themselves.
Bao Xu’s breakthrough point was: Why did Boss Pei repeatedly emphasize that they had to make a fighting game? What’s more, it was the traditional fighting game of rubbing skills?
Fighting games were outdated. This was a fact that ordinary players could tell.
Other than overseas game developers who had accumulated rich combat games and a large number of IP fans who were still insisting on producing sequels for combat games, other game companies basically would not touch this game type at all.
It was obvious that it was thankless for Boss Pei to refer them to combat games. If they were not careful, they would lose money!
However, did Boss Pei want to lose money?
Which game of Tengda did not make a huge profit!
Which game did not have full confidence at the start of its design?
Based on the current conditions, Bao Xu guessed that Boss Pei probably had two motives for doing this.
One was to expand the boundaries of the Tengda Games.
Everyone knew that Boss Pei was a game designer who loved to challenge himself. He would not spend time on developing successful games. Instead, he would enter a new game type.
On the other hand, figuring out a new path and saving a combat game that was already in danger was a form of performance for Boss Pei’s challenge.
The second was thinking for gamers.
To the Faithful gamers of combat games, they were suffering too much. They had been playing various old combat games for decades. What’s more, they would only be able to play fewer and fewer new combat games in the future.
If a well-made new combat game appeared at this time, and it was a game developed by a domestic company, how exciting would that be!
For gamers who had briefly interacted with combat games before but had given up, and gamers who had not interacted with combat games at all, this game could also let them experience the fun of combat games.
It had always been Tengda Games’ mission to provide players with a whole new experience.
That way, Ghost General 2’s mission would be clear.
It was so that the fun of fighting games could be spread to ordinary gamers!
Actually, this was not the first time Boss Pei had done this.
Didn’t the previous games like Struggle, Mission and Choice also have niche and large production models?
The theme of the game was indeed niche, but as long as the design was brilliant enough, niche games could also break out of the circle.
Obviously, Ghost General 2 was a game like that. It wanted to retain the essence and core fun of combat games so that experienced combat gamers would be able to feel the fun and would be willing to spend thousands of hours repeatedly playing it. At the same time, it had to satisfy the needs of non combat gamers so that they would be willing to play it.
The former might be difficult but it was relatively easy.
After all, the combat game had been developing for so many years. Gamers had already done a lot of research on it. It had met the requirements of experienced gamers. The game’s combat system had passed.
The most difficult was the latter.
It was no longer the era of street games. Players had more and more fun game forms. The attractiveness of combat games was no longer as high as before.
How to snatch players from other game types was a huge problem.
It would definitely not work to continue the model of traditional combat games. That was because ordinary players would find it difficult to obtain pleasure directly, quickly, and efficiently from the core gameplay of combat games. They would only be able to gain entry after a long period of research.
Yu Fei combined the clues given by Boss Pei and finally thought of two key solutions: excellent newbie guidance, simple operations, rich and unique PVE content!
In fact, this was summarized from the experience of the game ‘Mission and Choice’.
Mission and Choice also relied on this method as a game type that was also more niche and declining. Coupled with the excellent production and appropriate publicity, it stood out.
He could set two different operating modes for newbies and experts so that newbies would not have to come into contact with such hardcore content in the early stages. He could reduce the difficulty of getting used to it and slowly experience the joy of the game.
Once gamers’ interest was nurtured, they would naturally delve into higher difficulty game content and move towards hardcore gamers.
The rich and unique PVE content was also necessary for the game to break out of the circle.
PVP’s gameplay had an extremely high upper limit, but the biggest problem was that the difference in strength was very vague. It was difficult for new players to increase the difficulty step by step.
MOBA games could avoid this problem as much as possible through a large number of players and a perfect matching mechanism. If the players were not strong enough, they could choose heroes to play or let their teammates carry.
However, since there were very few combat games to begin with and the game mechanism was too fair, there were not many variables. Thus, players either won in a boring manner or were tortured to the point of being helpless.
Many players were dissuaded because of this.
The outstanding PVE content could solve this very well.
Through the stages, system design, and changes in the opposing general AI, the difficulty level of the players would be increased bit by bit. Players would have a smooth learning curve so that they would not be tortured by experts to the point of doubting life.
This principle was actually the same as Repent and be Saved’s players suffering and obtaining improvement.
After players cleared the story mode, they could continue to challenge the more difficult story mode.
If he were to fight players now, players who had similar progress would not be unilaterally abused because he was too lousy.
What’s more, the PVE content designed this way could also be used as the main content of the game.
Many gamers did not want to hone their combat skills at all. They could also view Ghost General 2 as a standalone game that depended on the plot.
He would control the generals that he liked by using a few big moves and cutting grass among the small monsters. He would briefly experience the combat fun of games. This game was worth the basic ticket price.
As for this story system, it was obvious that it would be the most outstanding if he flew over to design it. Bao Xu could not do it.
This was obviously the deeper meaning behind Boss Pei’s decision for Yu Fei to be in charge of the lead design!
Yu Fei quickly recorded in the document and said, “This way, the two unresolved problems can be confirmed.”
“First, the handling of the small soldiers.”
“Boss Pei approved of such a horizontal movement method, which means that there’s no problem with our thinking. Small soldiers should be a very weak existence. Ordinary attacks by generals would have a fan-shaped attack effect. Moving horizontally would also emit waves or collisions, cutting the small soldiers into pieces.”
“In other words, it should have the effect of cutting grass when fighting small soldiers.”
“After all, if small soldiers come from the side, it would be very difficult for players to deal with them if they are very strong.”
“According to the current design, players would focus all their attention on the enemy generals, and the generals on both sides would always be on the same level.”
“Those soldiers would cause a small amount of damage to players, but players can use their generals to cut grass and sweep across thousands of soldiers and horses.”
“After all, the game’s name is Ghost General. It’s normal for generals to be able to defeat small soldiers. It’s very reasonable.”
“That way, we can better reflect the epic feel of the battlefield. It would be different from the monotonous scene of other combat games that would always be one-on-one.”
“The combat styles of generals would definitely not be limited to using their fists. Only a few generals would use hand to hand combat while the others would have weapons. For example, Guan Yu’s weapon would be the Green Dragon Crescent Blade. What’s more, the attacking distance and movements of each general would be slightly different.”
“Next is the simple combat system.”
“Boss Pei rejected my proposal and did not agree to use the AI combo. Instead, he wanted to keep the minimum controlling.”
“However, the logic should be similar. They should lower the threshold and attract ordinary players.”
Bao Xu nodded. “In my opinion, this is inevitable. Boss Pei’s plan is obviously more reasonable.”
“Your plan might give people more sensory stimulation on the screen but it might cause players to lose interest.”
“Players would feel great at the beginning if they only kept pressing the A button to automatically launch moves. They would watch the generals release all sorts of moves to cut the grass, but they would feel bored after a while.”
“That’s because he has only been pressing AAA. He has not improved.”
“Then, the gamers’ gaming experience would not change much.”
“If he attempts to use his own moves, he might be much weaker than AI’s automatic release of skills. The graphics would be ugly, and it would be difficult to continue the plot.”
“All in all, most players would choose to finish the plot under such circumstances. It would be difficult for them to experience the joy of fighting games.”
“However, the simplified attack mode is different. Even though the difficulty of the operation is reduced, players still have to rub it in. They have to weigh the order of the combo moves themselves. They will only have a sense of growth and sense of achievement when they defeat enemies of different difficulty.”
“This way, he would be able to experience the joy of fighting games. After clearing the story mode, he would pursue higher challenges and try the more cumbersome and powerful standard attack mode.”
“What’s more, according to your previous settings, the skills of generals are unlocked based on the stages. If it’s an AI’s attack mode, what’s the point of unlocking it? It’s nothing more than letting the general have an additional movement when you press the A button brainlessly. It’s not much different and exciting for players.”
“Players would still be able to experience the joy of obtaining new skills under the simple attack mode, so that the fun in the game could be retained to the maximum.”
Yu Fei nodded seriously. “Yes… that’s right. Boss Pei is indeed more considerate!”
After some analysis, Yu Fei and Bao Xu only had one feeling: heartfelt admiration!
Indeed, Boss Pei was still the same Boss Pei. He was still an inexhaustible treasure chest with good ideas!
Yu Fei suddenly felt full of motivation. When he wrote the design draft, he actually had the passion to write a novel!
Of course, he was only passionate about Ghost General 2 and did not intend to remain as the chief designer.
This game had indeed caught his fancy. What about the next game?
That was hard to say.
At that time, he would probably continue to suffer.
Fortunately, Hu Xianbin should be back next month.
In any case, he would take the last shift this month and finish the design content for Ghost General 2. When Hu Xianbin returned, he would be able to hand the design plan to him without any worries.
Then, he could go back and write novels without any regrets!
When Ghost General 2 was officially released, Yu Fei could still boast in his readers’ group chat: was Ghost General 2 fun? I designed it!
Of course, it was designed under Boss Pei’s guidance.
However, so what? As a web novelist, he was actually able to participate in Tengda Games’ design and contribute decisive plans and ideas. He could boast about it for a lifetime.
Yu Fei was elated. He was very satisfied with his temporary career as the chief planner.